If you had not read this about NY.
http://www.comcast.net/news/science/ind ... =itn_virus
VHS - NY
-
Hamilton Reef
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VIRUS KILLING GREAT LAKES GIANTS
David Sommerstein October 8, 2007
http://www.environmentreport.org/transc ... ry_id=3663
Fall is when avid anglers flock to the Great Lakes for one of the most challenging freshwater catches: the muskellunge, or muskie. Some call it "the fish of 10,000 casts." This year's muskie season is clouded by bad news of a new fish disease and invasive species crowding muskie habitat. David Sommerstein reports scientists are watching this top-of-the-food-chain species carefully:
It's a cool afternoon as fishing guide Rich Clarke fillets the day's catch:
"Went out, caught some northerns, a few bass, some jack perch. Had a pretty good morning."
Clarke's specialty is hunting for muskies, 60 pound fish with a lot of fight:
"I mean, the rod screams, they yank, yank, and yank. It doesn't come all that often, but when it comes, it's one of the most exciting things you'll see when you fish in fresh water."
Clarke worries that magical hit might become even more rare. Since 2005, several hundred of those prized muskies were found belly-up dead, victims of viral hemorrhagic septicimia, or VHS.
(Sound of hose)
Clarke washes down his fillet table. He mutters VHS is just another non- native organism threatening the muskie. There are already more than 180 invasive species in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system:
"Everything from the goby to the zebra mussel, y'know, and weed species and all sorts of stuff, spiny water fleas, you name it, all sorts of stuff that are not native to this waterway that we have to deal with, and it changes the whole ecology."
A new invasive species is found every six to nine months. Scientists can barely keep up in understanding the impact on the native environment.
In a nearby bay of the St. Lawrence River in northern New York State, Roger Klindt, John Farrell, and a crew drag a huge net through the water:
"We've got two people pulling it slowly through the vegetation just trying to basically corral fish."
This is called seining, getting a sample of all the fish that live here. Klindt and Farrell have been doing this in the same marshy shallows for more than 20 years. And Farrell says what they've found this year is disturbing:
"Muskellunge numbers in the index are at their lowest levels on record since we've been collecting data."
Down from almost 50 in the spring spawning run of 2003 to just 4 this year. Farrell's a researcher with the State University of New York Environmental Science and Forestry. He says this could be the result of VHS killing so many adult muskies in their reproductive prime.
Yet another invasive species is also troubling, the round goby. It's an ugly little fish from Eastern Europe that breeds like crazy. Farrell and Klindt count minnows flipping and fluttering in the seining net:
"15 black gins, 8 blunt nose, 5 spot tail."
"I didn't actually count things, I was just picking gobies."
Farrell says they've found more round gobies in these marshes than ever before:
"Which is a bit of a surprise to us."
Now the muskie young have to compete with round gobies for food:
"How these species are going to respond to the presence of gobies is unknown at this time, but they have high predation rates, they're very prolific, becoming extremely abundant, so the food web in this system is shifting."
This is what frustrates people who study invasive species. Once researchers train their focus on one, like the fish disease VHS, another emerges to confound the equation. Roger Klindt is with New York's Department of Environmental Conservation:
"Change happens, y'know, nothing stays the same forever. But when we have invasive species and exotic species come in, the change is often so rapid that native species can't adapt to it."
That talk makes anglers nervous. Peter Emerson's been fishing around here for years. In fact, he participated in a catch and release program that brought muskie populations back to health in the 1980s:
"There was a real bonanza, til this virus showed up. I'm hopeful they don't go extinct."
Biologists expect adult muskies that survived VHS will develop resistance to the disease. But they fear the next generation won't inherit the immunity, causing more die-offs of one of America's most prized freshwater fish.
For The Environment Report, I'm David Sommerstein.
view slideshow http://www.environmentreport.org/slides ... slideNum=0
David Sommerstein October 8, 2007
http://www.environmentreport.org/transc ... ry_id=3663
Fall is when avid anglers flock to the Great Lakes for one of the most challenging freshwater catches: the muskellunge, or muskie. Some call it "the fish of 10,000 casts." This year's muskie season is clouded by bad news of a new fish disease and invasive species crowding muskie habitat. David Sommerstein reports scientists are watching this top-of-the-food-chain species carefully:
It's a cool afternoon as fishing guide Rich Clarke fillets the day's catch:
"Went out, caught some northerns, a few bass, some jack perch. Had a pretty good morning."
Clarke's specialty is hunting for muskies, 60 pound fish with a lot of fight:
"I mean, the rod screams, they yank, yank, and yank. It doesn't come all that often, but when it comes, it's one of the most exciting things you'll see when you fish in fresh water."
Clarke worries that magical hit might become even more rare. Since 2005, several hundred of those prized muskies were found belly-up dead, victims of viral hemorrhagic septicimia, or VHS.
(Sound of hose)
Clarke washes down his fillet table. He mutters VHS is just another non- native organism threatening the muskie. There are already more than 180 invasive species in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system:
"Everything from the goby to the zebra mussel, y'know, and weed species and all sorts of stuff, spiny water fleas, you name it, all sorts of stuff that are not native to this waterway that we have to deal with, and it changes the whole ecology."
A new invasive species is found every six to nine months. Scientists can barely keep up in understanding the impact on the native environment.
In a nearby bay of the St. Lawrence River in northern New York State, Roger Klindt, John Farrell, and a crew drag a huge net through the water:
"We've got two people pulling it slowly through the vegetation just trying to basically corral fish."
This is called seining, getting a sample of all the fish that live here. Klindt and Farrell have been doing this in the same marshy shallows for more than 20 years. And Farrell says what they've found this year is disturbing:
"Muskellunge numbers in the index are at their lowest levels on record since we've been collecting data."
Down from almost 50 in the spring spawning run of 2003 to just 4 this year. Farrell's a researcher with the State University of New York Environmental Science and Forestry. He says this could be the result of VHS killing so many adult muskies in their reproductive prime.
Yet another invasive species is also troubling, the round goby. It's an ugly little fish from Eastern Europe that breeds like crazy. Farrell and Klindt count minnows flipping and fluttering in the seining net:
"15 black gins, 8 blunt nose, 5 spot tail."
"I didn't actually count things, I was just picking gobies."
Farrell says they've found more round gobies in these marshes than ever before:
"Which is a bit of a surprise to us."
Now the muskie young have to compete with round gobies for food:
"How these species are going to respond to the presence of gobies is unknown at this time, but they have high predation rates, they're very prolific, becoming extremely abundant, so the food web in this system is shifting."
This is what frustrates people who study invasive species. Once researchers train their focus on one, like the fish disease VHS, another emerges to confound the equation. Roger Klindt is with New York's Department of Environmental Conservation:
"Change happens, y'know, nothing stays the same forever. But when we have invasive species and exotic species come in, the change is often so rapid that native species can't adapt to it."
That talk makes anglers nervous. Peter Emerson's been fishing around here for years. In fact, he participated in a catch and release program that brought muskie populations back to health in the 1980s:
"There was a real bonanza, til this virus showed up. I'm hopeful they don't go extinct."
Biologists expect adult muskies that survived VHS will develop resistance to the disease. But they fear the next generation won't inherit the immunity, causing more die-offs of one of America's most prized freshwater fish.
For The Environment Report, I'm David Sommerstein.
view slideshow http://www.environmentreport.org/slides ... slideNum=0